STUFF JOURNALISTS LIKE

New Logo

Following Gap's footsteps, we at SJL are unveiling a new logo, only to have it mocked by people, then we'll resort back to our beloved old logo and apologize for the "blunder" while basking in the free press.

Well done, New Coke Gap.

#74 working off the clock

A journalist’s work is never done.

Whether it’s fielding late-night calls from editors, meeting with sources after business hours or systematically waking up every 2.5 hours to check their e-mail, journalists are always working.

As publishers watch readers ditch their subscriptions and flock to the web, they have pretty much nixed the idea of giving journalists overtime. The chances of a journalist getting some OT are less than a journalist having a saving account. But despite that, most journalists do not know what a 40-hour workweek feels like. 

Long after journalists punch out for the day, they continue to work. With BlackBerrys, laptops and Wi-Fi at every corner coffee shop, diner and outhouse, it’s hard for journalists to keep work at work.

Journalists could be at dinner, sitting through their child’s dancing recital or two drinks away from having an sexual indiscretion with a bar waitress, they always have a reporter's notebook in their back pocket "just in case." 

Most of the time, working off the clock is inevitable. While politicians, government employees and other sources work hours that would even make make bank employees jealous, journalists don’t work set hours. A journalist could start one day at 5 a.m. for a story on trash collection then not stumble into the newsroom until 2 p.m. the next day to cover a city council meeting that evening. With irregular hours and spilt shifts, sometimes a journalist’s only way to connect with a source and finish a story is to work off the clock. Journalists are always on call. 

Unlike other people, journalists’ circadian rhythms are not set to the rising and setting of the sun but rather deadlines. And to meet those deadlines and get the story right, journalists are willing to sometimes work off the clock. 

But that’s ok. To compensate for the unpaid hours, they use the newsroom copier to runoff copies of their clips, steal as many pens and reporter notebooks as possible and consider their bar tabs as business expenses.